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The Director-General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova, today denounced the killing of reporter Ahmad Mohamed al-Mousa in the city of Idlib in the northwest of Syria.

“I condemn the murder of Ahmad Mohamed al-Mousa,” said the Director-General. “It is an unacceptable tragedy for society as a whole when those who contribute to public debate and to the free flow of information are made to pay with their lives for doing their important work.”

Unidentified masked men killed Al-Mousa on 16 December. He was a reporter for the citizen journalist collective Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently (RBSS), which focuses on human rights violations in the region.

The Director-General of UNESCO issues statements on the killing of media workers in line with Resolution 29 adopted by UNESCO Member States at the Organization’s General Conference of 1997, entitled “Condemnation of Violence against Journalists.” These statements are posted on a dedicated webpage, UNESCO condemns the killing of journalists.

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Media contact: Sylvie Coudray, s.coudray(at)unesco.org, +33 (0)1 45 68 42 12

UNESCO is the United Nations agency with a mandate to defend freedom of expression and press freedom. Article 1 of its Constitution requires the Organization to “further universal respect for justice, for the rule of law and for the human rights and fundamental freedoms which are affirmed for the peoples of the world, without distinction of race, sex, language or religion, by the Charter of the United Nations.” To realize this the Organization is requested to “collaborate in the work of advancing the mutual knowledge and understanding of peoples, through all means of mass communication and to that end recommend such international agreements as may be necessary to promote the free flow of ideas by word and image…”